COCOA — Low unemployment rates in Brevard County are posing a challenge for companies looking for workers.

Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity Friday morning released job data for September that put the Space Coast unemployment rate at 2.9 percent — down from 4 percent last year.

The data showed 266,119 people in Brevard had jobs last month, compared with 260,931 a year earlier. Considering 5 percent is considered full employment, a rate of 2.9 percent should mean job opportunities are ample on the Space Coast.

Unemployment has been this low since April 2006, when the rate was 2.8 percent. Then the Brevard labor force was 258,044

A tight labor market and the need to maintain a flowing pipeline of workers, particularly those in high tech, was a major theme Friday morning at the second annual Space Coast Symposium, an event in Cocoa put on by the Greater Palm Bay Chamber of Commerce.

A multitude of panelists — representing the area’s top military and high-tech ventures — certainly talked up the area’s attributes to the approximately 180 people that attended the event.

They painted an exciting picture of new engineering job opportunities as the aerospace business continues to grow more prolific here in the year's ahead.

“The economy is so robust,” said Lynda Weatherman, president and chief executive officer of the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast and a moderator for one of the panels.

But those positives aside, the need to attract talent to the area is going to be a key hurdle in the years ahead.

And it’s also skilled trade workers that are needed - plumbers, electricians, etc. That has been a growing issue with schools, where many students want tech skills but don't necessarily want to attend a four-year college

”When you think about it,” said Tony Gannon, vice president for Research and Innovation at Space Florida, “You never hear of an unemployed plumber.”

In Brevard, most of the job gains over the year came in:

Construction - up 1,900

Manufacturing - up 700

Retail - 1,700

Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican who is attempting to win a U.S. Senate seat now held by Bill Nelson, D-Orlando, quickly jumped on the positive labor report. It's the last unemployment report before next month's general election.

"Florida’s unemployment rate has reached its lowest point since February 2007 – this is great news for Florida families," Scott said in a statement.

Contact Price at 321-242-3658 or wprice@floridatoday.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @Fla2dayBiz.